From: "Don Rieck" 
Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 12:17:52 -0500
Subject: [BARGE] Bingo's BARGE

BARGE goes by so quickly it all seems like a blur.  Hard to believe this was
my 13th BARGE.  Apologies in advance if I forgot you or put you in the wrong
place or time.  Barge reality is a fungible thing.

First, obthanks to the organizers current and emeritus - Mickdog, Nick,
Chuck, Foldem.  You guys do a great job.  Thanks to Patrick for the chips
and pins and badges et al.  And thanks to all who volunteer and do various
and sundry that makes the week so much fun.  And a special thanks to Nolan
(stop being pissed about being thanked Nolan !) for arranging for Doyle to
talk at the Banquet.

I arrived Wednesday around 1:00 in the afternoon, and checked in at the
Nugget.  Paying the $20 vig for VIP check in was well worth it as I avoided
a queue of at least 50 people.  Room is basically on the strip - farthest
south you can get in the south tower.  And the shower handle falls off when
you turn it on.  We also found out on Sunday :) that the TV didn't work at
all.  Oh well, more important things to do.

I head to Binions (can we still call it the 'Shoe ?) and find Mickdog who is
as hungry as I am and we head to lunch at the coffee shop, picking up a few
others along the way.  I sit in a 1-2 NL game with only one other BARGER who
has his aces cracked by 9-5 offsoot for his whole stack and soon leaves.
Saddenz.  After lunch Jester texts me and says he's in town after some sort
of strange 'lizards on the plane' story, and we meet up and shoot some dice.
Jeff bets the don't and makes me a few hundred dollars while shooting :)
Sadly this trend only lasted through Wednesday.  We putter around until
Lowbah, where I play like a donkey and last about an hour.  My head just
wasn't in the game - I haven't been playing much poker and it really showed
this trip.
Played some Binglaha for a bit, losing a couple bills, which I get back
later in the dice pit.  Head to bed fairly early for BARGE - about 3:00 or
so.

Thursday I meet up with team Deadhead.  Always nice to see the Chorse team,
and I score the usual music freerolls from Grizz and Len - very nice.
Deadhead is sitting in on the Deadhead team this year as Claude joined team
pussy after paying for some wedding :)  We figure we are a lock, since every
dealer downtown is in tie-die shirts, and it's the 40th anniversary of the
summer of love.  Hmmm.  Not so much :)  I think I played three hands in my
two rounds, losing two of them.  I didn't get to play the third round as we
somehow ran out of chips before that :)  We almost always make money in
this, so a very unusual outcome for us.  In between rounds I help fellow
roadie Jester assemble a killer drum kit for Rock Band Kareoke.

Chuck graciously offers Jester & I a ride to the smoker, which was fun as
always.  Great Barbeque, great whiskey.  I want that Mint Julep recipe !
Thanks to Dan and Sharon for having us.  Thanks for the ride Chuck ! We head
back for the craps crawl.

The crawl couldn't really start at Binions, as they are full-up on three
tables.  A group of us headed to the Cal where we failed to get the golden
arm trophy by only 58 minutes.  The group from Binions arrives, and the
first group heads over to Main Street station.  They are just about to close
one of two open tables, and we successfully convince them that this would be
a mistake.  Soon we have two full tables of Bargers shooting dice, and we do
pretty well at first, but then the dark siders take over.  I move to a
blackjack table along with Marlin and Bryan the virgin and others.  We have
an absolutely hilarious time, and I get up pretty big for a bit before
donking a lot of it back.  At one point Marlin is counting the cards out
loud - no one seemed to care.  Soon realize it's 5:00 am.  Aiyah.  We
stumble back to the Nugget and crash.

*We are strongly considering moving the Craps Crawl to Wednesday night.
This allows much more recovery time, as C-Horse doesn't start until 11, and
team sleeping in doesn't care.  Opinions welcome !*

Jester wakes me up as instructed about at the end of the first level of the
TOC.  I see no reason to play this level :)  Find my table and get some
coffee.  Meet Jeanne from Stars and she borrows Jester's ADB hat for a
picture.   She then later busts me out.  Must be a lucky hat.  I play pretty
poorly, and get no cards, and bust out about 2.5 hours in or so.

I head back to the room for a nap, spewing some VP money along the way.

Wake up in time for the Symposium, where I help poor Foldem with the
auction.  Pete has decided to implant a racquetball in his jaw, and for some
reason this doesn't seem to feel good.   I thought the food was much more
appropriate - lots of cheese and crackers, etc.  More volume good.

I buy my action back, and head down to the poker room.  End up grabbing
dinner with Nick and Nolan and Foldem.    Nick is concerned about sort of
roasting Doyle in his intro - we convince him it's perfect, and it turned
out to be just that.  Nick has great timing and delivery.


Have fun at Karaoke, although why I even try to sing I can't imagine.
Quickly blow out my voice and let others more capable take over the
entertainment.  Up many many Absolut-Cran and laughter units.


Wake up and have breakfast at Binions, getting very slow service and
slightly pissed off worried that I'm going to miss the first hand.  I should
have ordered desert, as I lost 10% of my stack on the first hand where I
misplay TT and fold where I probably should have jammed with TT being high
over the raggedy board.  Didn't want to be out so early.  Stupid Bingo - why
play it preflop then ?

I play solid for a while, getting up to about T4500 before the first break.
Get cold cards for a while and am down to about T3700 when ADB Jaeger busts
out.  We chat, and he kindly agrees to fetch a hamburger from the snack bar
for me.  10 minutes later I have the burger, and T400.  Lost a massive pot
with AK v 88 when I jammed from the button and the 88 called with a bigger
stack than I originally read him for.  I manage to get back up to T2000 when
I get A4d all in preflop, the brit from Stars (awesome guy - I suck at
names) thinks and says 'worst call I've ever made' and calls, and JP
insta-jams from the button with nice brit well covered.  He folds, and JP
shows AQh.  I flop two diamonds, but the suckout gods fail to see me and I
bust with about 95 people left.  First time I haven't cashed in a BARGE
tourney in at least 5 years !  Bummerz !

I wander around and end up playing in a 3-6 dealers choice Omaha Variants
(Variance ?) game with Bob O and other Bargers.  Fun time.  Get a tweet from
Patti that she has taken Peter to the ER.  Thankfully nothing serious, just
painful.  Thanks Patti !

Go up and change for the banquet, get picture and autograph from Doyle !
Nice guy.  Score nice seats at the front.  Nick did a great job, and Nolan
and Doyle were very entertaining.  Pretty neat to have a poker legend and
one of the real gentleman of the game talking to us.

On the way to the poker room, Jester and someone (Sorry!) and I play 'Cops
and Doughnuts' video slot.  Funniest damn thing I've seen - doughnut eating
bonuses, speeding excuses, etc in the bonus rounds.  We were laughing our
asses off.  Patti later tells me it's lame, but after a bunch of cognac it's
pretty damn funny.

Play Binglaha in the reindeer games, and stack off to Nolan when I reraise
all in with top three pair and a high only roll.  I fail to hit anything,
and stomp off - sorry about that, was just burned out. Biggest bummer is I
left behind my r00ling Binions Barge golf shirt.  Dang it ! Hit the bed.

Had a nice lunch with Ice and Patti on Sunday (thanks for lunch Steve !),
and head to the airport where I sleep through the bulk of my connecting
flights home.

Can't wait until next year !!

Don 'ADBBingo' Rieck